A battalion Story - TF1

The Story of The European Team Fortress 2 Battalion.

Hello.

My name Daniel Persson Aka toxaris.

I have decided to leave TAW.

Other things in life have taken over and playing computer games have slowly been reduced through the years to only a few hours a week. And now days it’s below the amount of 2 hours per week which is the minimum of time you are supposed to play to be a member of TAW. My skill in TF2 has also been dramatically reduced and it’s not fun to play when you know you can do better if you have had the time to play more. It becomes a burden in the long run.

The only thing that have kept me from leaving the last year is the friends I have here in TAW, in particular Triumni, Jako, Radical.  These guys have been with me since the beginning of TF2 1st battalion. I want to give you guys a big thank you for these years and we will surely keep contact through Steam and so on.

This is my story in TAW.

Fall 2007, S.T.A.L.K.E.R Days.

2007-10-09 was the day I applied for membership in TAW.

Back then I played S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl a lot and I wanted to take my gaming to next level. I searched the forums for a Stalker-clan. And I found a few, one of them was TAW.

I got in and then I realized that these guys played the game in the middle of the night, due to timezones. Well, not much to do about that. During next 3 months I go to bed by 21:00 slept 5 hours, got up and played games as a TAW member for 1 hour and went to bed again to sleep 3 hours and then up again for work. When I think about it now days it was ridiculous but it was fun.

During that time much happened. At first we played Stalker for a month but we realized that the game was too unstable and there was no rcon for the server so we decided to leave Stalker in favor for the new game called Team Fortress 2.

But Stalker is still one of my favorite games, all thou Stalker should be played Singleplayer with a lot of mods, and not in multiplayer as we did.

Last days of 2007, Team Fortress 2 Nights.

I continue play TF2 in the (ridiculous) middle of the night with the guys until I was asked to start up a European battalion. I agreed with the knowledge that I have now experience in the leading and management of a clan. I thought, let’s give it a try. A guy called Greaseman offered his helping hand. Greaseman as CO, me as XO and we began recruiting new members.

Spring 2008, the building of 1st battalion.

At first we didn’t have our own server so we borrowed the 4th battalion server.

We played and the ping was high. So we mostly played on public servers in Europe instead.

Our first serious recruit came along the 10th January and the recruit was Triumni.

Triumni has been steadfast since then (apart from his military absence).

Through January we had a few recruits of regular type which means that they join and stay from a few weeks up to a few months. Then they leave.

This behavior was something we were going to see many times in the future.

By the end of January Greaseman left us and a guy called FFDino joined us as CO from the 4th batt.

2nd of February Jako joined us. Jako have also been a steadfast member since then.

Actually Jako have been even more steadfast then me and Triumni.

Jako later become our long lasting server-admin.

By this time we also managed to leave Vanguard to become our own division.

In late Mars we got our own server which a guy called FireTAS pays from his own pocket for many months ahead. Big thanks for that FireTAS. FireTAS gave us something to grow on.

By the middle of Mars FFDino handed over the battalion to me as new CO for 1st Batt. And soon after that I nominated Triumni for XO.

There it was, the first all Europeans leadership of 1st battalion.

It was rocky start for two new members of TAW to create battalion with no previous experience.

23rd of Mars our last steadfast member joined us, Radical. Radical has been with us most of the time since then.

Our battalion did grow to a quite solid group of 10-14 members for a few months until the summer came along.

 

Summer 2008, the failed Age of Conan battalion.

In May I decided to try out a new game called Age of Conan which I have been interested in since a year back.

I got the opportunity to start up the European battalion for Age of Conan. I left TF2 division and Triumni stepped up for the CO in TF2 1st batt.

I don’t have much to say about my time in AOC more that it was summer and it didn’t work out at all. I was back in TF2 1st batt in just 4 months.

During this time triumni managed to keep things even thou I left him alone with the CO position.

Fall 2008, back in TF2.

During the summer after my AOC battalion had fallen apart I didn’t take action to join TF again until I actually got discharged from TAW. I felt that just had to get back in.

Back in TF2 1st batt. I joined back as a regular player and we continued play TF2 as usual. Triumni was CO and a guy called Tinsley had the role as XO. He is still an active member here in TAW.  In the Bad Company 2 division.

Spring 2009, back in the leadership.

In February 1st battalion needed a Staff Officer so I stepped up as SO and I was back in leadership of 1st Battalion.

And by middle of Mars Tinsley decided to leave us for Empire: Total War and I stepped up as XO.

We registered out battalion on ET2L. Our battalion have around 10-14 members and we struggle to bring in more members but more than 12 active members seems to be hard to achieve.

Summer 2009, summer as usual.

Tinsley joined back in May.

Triumni left us for a year in the army. I was once again back in the CO position.

Jako stepped us as new XO.

And we did a summer break during July due to low attendance during summer.

Fall 2009, the slow downfall.

As I remember we did quite well during fall 2009, some closed 6vs6 when we was enough players otherwise we did some scrims which we usually did lose hard.

But still the magic line of 12+ steady members was still hard to archive. Also the public interest in TF2 has slowly been reduced since the game soon was over 2 years old.

Only people that loved the game were still playing TF2 and usually those guys were in the league where we weren’t.

Spring 2010, on thin line.

We did continue as we did during fall.

Aracun joined in middle of February, Aracun become a steadfast member.

Soon after that Aracun, Ssake joined, he also becomes a steadfast member.

Jako got his 2 year service medal.

We did quite well during spring 2010 with good attendance but we had been reduced to only around 6 active members due to low activity in recruiting.

So most of the time we did scrims and TF2 Lobbies. It worked fine since members know each and other well and we had fun online.

And my time and effort that I put in to TAW slowly started to decrease.

Basically I and Jako just kept the battalion up and running and waiting for triumni to come back from army. Lucky for us we made it before the battalion went to inactive

Summer 2010, triumni is back.

In June triumni was back in business and I handed over the CO position during the summer. Around this time we decided to focus on 6vs6. It was hard to find members and the failed attemps to mimic 4th battalion had not work so 6vs6 game style seemed to be best option for us. Eventually it was the way we got best games, most fun online and best numbers we had ever managed to get.

Fall 2010, the rebuild of 1st battalion.

With triumni back in command and with a helping hand from me as XO and Aracun as SO we started to rebuild the battalion.

We started to grow towards the magic line of 12+ members and we decided to try to do things right now. It seemed members had more motivation and we as a leaders where more confident. We have failed too many times and we felt that it was now or never.

We appointed two squadleaders in an early stage, sake and NeoUno.

And it did work well; we had good attendance and 12+ members. And as a result, much more internal 6vs6 trainings. Playing TF2 was fun again. We finally had made it. It was time for new blood we succeed and can step down now.

Spring 2011, the ETF2L was the next goal and to get new CO.

By the end of January triumni got the opportunity to work as a DO for TF2 division.

And TF2 1st batt. needed a new CO, I didn’t want it again.

A guy called Jammeh was picked as the new CO. Jammeh got the CO training but not much more.

By the end of February Jammeh had to leave the CO position. The air went out of me!

Soon after we decided to put our long lasting Aracun on to CO position. And I was still there as XO.

In Mars sake’s squad joined ETF2L. It was fun but we didn’t win a single match. But to be honest we were supposed to play in division 6 but somehow we got moved to division 5, it was unfair. But we fought hard and never ragequited.

During Mars and April we had a nice time with some ETF2L matches and some other scrims and a bunch of internal 6vs6 trainings, it was nice.

And by May I took the chance to hand over my XO position to a guy called VisionMercer.

In the middle of May my IRL needs was starting to prioritize down my gaming and from the middle of June I went “On Leave” as usual during summer until I got contacted by Triumni by the end of July. That day I realized that my interests in gaming was very low and I haven’t been gaming a single time since the day I went On Leave.

I thought it was time to say goodbye to TF2 and TAW, at least for now.

I’m glad I’m not needed anymore. I can now leave with good confidence and I know that the battalion will continue to live and grow. Triumni is still around making things work and guide, but the new leadership has really taken over and the battalion is no longer mine or triumni’s... for the first time.

Maybe my inbox can finally settle, through the years I have received the impressive number of 2645 emails regarding TAW.

To be continued...

If you liked this story they asked that you give your best comments, thank you.

1lt-Killacrazy [OS STL]